


you are precisely (my cup of tea)

by escherzo



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alien genitalia, First Time, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Getting to Know Each Other, Growth, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 12:07:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16516181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escherzo/pseuds/escherzo
Summary: Early in a relationship, there's always a period of learning. Of feeling the other out, discovering the way they smile when they're trying to hold in a laugh, the way their body carries their anger, their passions, their old pains. Learning favorite pizza toppings. The way they take their coffee. The way they look first thing in the morning, sleepy sunrise lighting up the contours of their face. If they're a dog person, or a cat person, or neither. If they're close with their family or never call, or somewhere in between.Eddie isn't sure why he thought it might be different with Venom, at first.He's not sure when he started thinking of the two of them as a relationship, either.





	you are precisely (my cup of tea)

**Author's Note:**

> oops I did it again (title from "getting to know you" from the king and i) 
> 
> generally movie-based but with a few fond nods to the comics (why won't the comics just let them be happy ffs) here and there 
> 
> s/o to venomchat for all of the inspiration herein love y'all

Early in a relationship, there's always a period of learning. Of feeling the other out, discovering the way they smile when they're trying to hold in a laugh, the way their body carries their anger, their passions, their old pains. Learning favorite pizza toppings. The way they take their coffee. The way they look first thing in the morning, sleepy sunrise lighting up the contours of their face. If they're a dog person, or a cat person, or neither. If they're close with their family or never call, or somewhere in between. 

Eddie isn't sure why he thought it might be different with Venom, at first.

He's not sure when he started thinking of the two of them as a relationship, either.

*

Venom has a sense of humor, he finds out. It isn't normal for a Klyntar-- **Riot wasn't one** \--”One what?” A patient, fond sigh. **A _riot_ , Eddie.**

Venom doesn't like to talk about their planet much, or the others they came with, past brief mentions like that. There's a faint curl of unease, of tamped-down pain like the dull ache of an old bruise, that goes through Eddie when it comes up, and he knows it's not his own. Venom was not like the others, in many ways, and to not conform meant many things, none of them good. He's figured out that much so far. 

Here on Earth, those rules no longer apply. Venom is the only one of their kind around, and they can be anything they like. Generally, this has meant simultaneously terrifying and incredibly dorky. 

**Eddie. Eddie,** Venom says, tendril peeking out from their wrist to poke at Eddie's fingers as he's in the middle of typing.

“Let me finish this sentence,” Eddie says, not looking down, but Venom is in his head and so Venom knows he's been thinking _no that's not right ugh okay not that either maybe—fuck, this is garbage_ on a loop, stalled out on how to finish his article. He sighs and sits back, giving up. “Yes?”

**Eddie, why is beef a bad password.**

Eddie is already about to laugh just from the bubbling feeling of Venom's barely contained amusement, but he asks, “Why?”

**It's not stroganoff.**

“That's _terrible_ ,” Eddie says, but he's grinning despite himself. “Time for a break, I think.” 

**Food?**

“Yeah, bud. Sushi?”

 **Can we eat the koi this time?** There's a hum of anticipation in Eddie's bones as he gets up out of his chair. 

“That's for special occasions. We talked about this.” 

Venom grumbles in his head but relents, forming themself into a jacket around Eddie, warm and tight, and Eddie sighs and relaxes into the feeling. He just has to remember to not try and zip up his zipper from force of habit. He's still getting used to this part. His “zipper” currently has a lot of teeth, and sometimes he gets nibbled on in the process. Occasionally his pocket licks him-- **Just sampling.**

They don't eat the koi. This time. 

*

A week later, a package shows up on Eddie's doorstep. He doesn't remember ordering anything, but the giggle in his head is explanation enough.

A **hee hee heeee** in a voice that low really is disconcerting. 

“Rub-a-dub Lobster in the Tub,” Eddie reads off the package, voice flat. He holds up the bath toy. “Really.”

 **Heee heeeee. It reminded us of our first date.**

“That wasn't a--” 

Well. 

They did, if Eddie is being fair, go to a fancy restaurant and eat lobster. 

*

Eddie has never been great at communication. Or self-care, for that matter. It was an ongoing issue with Anne, and with all of his partners before her—Patricia in the advertising department, Angelo from J-school, his old roommate Eugene. He retreats into himself and eats shitty takeout and puts so much emotional energy into being an extroverted TV personality type that he comes home and dissociates on the couch, staring blankly down at hands his brain doesn't quite recognize. Anne, until he blew everything up, mostly worked with him on it. She was a workaholic herself, even if it was less pathological for her. Everyone else had just left when it became apparent he wasn't any good at taking care of himself and didn't want to talk about why. 

Venom can't leave. 

**We _can_. We don't want to.**

Venom has to be clear on this point a lot. Venom is in his head and hears the parade of negative self-talk and sees what a fuckup Eddie is and—doesn't want better, somehow. 

**We are enough.**

Eddie's body pilots itself—Venom pilots Eddie's body—into the bathroom. _I haven't showered in three days,_ Eddie thinks, vaguely. Being a print journalist now means less getting recognized, but he still gets invited onto shows sometimes, especially when it comes to debates on scientific ethics. A niche he was by no means an expert on, before, but finds himself filling now anyway. It's draining. His brain spirals into endless examination of whether or not he said the right thing, in the moment, how he looked, if he _helped_. 

**You are making our head hurt and I don't have a head unless I want to** , Venom says, but it's gentle, not a real criticism. They run the bath water and fill it up with bubbles, and Eddie lets himself fade into the background as they settle into the tub. The toy lobster is floating near his feet, and he smiles, looking at it. 

“Sorry I'm such a mess,” Eddie says quietly, watching Venom seep out from under his skin to grab the shampoo and pop the cap. He sighs as they work it into his scalp, eyes closing. 

**Eddie,** Venom says, just as quiet. **Do you know why we were sent on our mission?**

“I thought you were captured.”

 **We were “captured” because we intended to be. We were the scouting party for this world.** They turn on the tap and move Eddie backwards to rinse off, shutting his eyes for him. He doesn't have to do anything but lay here and feel. He hums, thinks, _go on_ , no need to say it out loud, not when they're Them. 

**But we. There was always a risk that this was a suicide mission for us. Riot was there to be the leader—should never have spawned them. We were there to take the damage for the others, if necessary.**

_You were the cannon fodder,_ Eddie thinks, trying not to get hung up on _spawned them_. A thing to put a pin in, and come back to later. _Why?_

**It was either that or be executed. We were not just—a loser, on our planet. The things we felt were forbidden. We were dangerous. A disease to be eradicated. If others had thought to go along, to allow the possibility that with a host we were an Us, instead of them being a vehicle, a food source—everything would have changed.**

“If you had stayed, and become a martyr, would it have?” 

**What's a martyr?**

Eddie may be a spectacularly lapsed Catholic, but the upbringing will probably never leave him fully. He tries to explain, as best he can. 

**And people worship him?** Venom asks, a little wistful, and Eddie smiles. 

“Don't get any ideas, dear,” Eddie says, fond, not sure why the endearment slipped out, but he doesn't regret it happening nonetheless. 

**No one else thought that way** , Venom says, after a moment. **We would not have been a martyr. Just dead. No followers. No miracles. Just--**

“Just?” Venom has a hand manifested, because it's easier to grasp the soap that way, and Eddie entwines his fingers with the darkness. 

**Just lonely. A mess, too.**

“Oh.”

Eddie closes his eyes again and thinks, _hey, mask?_ and Venom envelops him. They smile and he takes control for a moment, wraps their arms around themselves. Maybe they're both a little broken. But they have each other, and that's something. 

**Eddie,** Venom says, stroking a tender hand down their sides. **We have a lot of bubbles.**

Eddie hmms, but he can feel the low thrum of excitement. “What do you want to make?”

**Anything you want.**

They do a decent approximation of Mr. Belvedere, given the limitations of the medium, and then Venom tries to imitate the purring from Eddie's memories and just sounds like a horribly malfunctioning motorcycle and Eddie has to faceplant into their bubble sculpture to contain his helpless laughter. 

He's a mess. They both are. But they're here in this together, now. 

*

Eddie wakes up to the smell of coffee. There's a steaming mug by his bedside, and a hum of contentment at the back of his mind, and when he takes a sip it's perfect, exactly what he would want. Just enough sugar, a little cream. He didn't even think they had cream.

 **Didn't** , Venom says, stretching out to warm Eddie all over. **Neighbor gave us some.**

“You didn't eat him, did you?” Eddie asks, warm and comfortable, and for a moment, at peace, even without an answer to it. He already knows what the answer will be. 

**Just scared him a little.**

Eddie takes a sip. “Well,” he says, “that's fine then. He owes us.” 

That he hasn't gone over and eaten Chad's liver, considering the recent foray into learning the saxophone, probably qualifies him for at least minor sainthood. That his mouth is watering a little at the thought of eating said liver is probably Venom's fault. 

**Hmm. Juicy. Soft, still warm and full of blood--**

“Don't encourage us,” Eddie says, wrapping both hands around his mug. “Only the really bad ones, remember?” 

**His saxophone playing is really bad,** Venom offers hopefully, and Eddie snorts into his coffee. 

“Not good enough. Hey, V, why the coffee?” 

There's a silence for a moment, and Eddie's sudden rush of nervousness is not his own. **You remember Anne doing this for you. We—**

“Oh, love,” Eddie says, awash in fondness, and he wishes Venom would manifest enough to touch. 

**”We are still learning,”** Venom says, out loud, head poking out from the middle of Eddie's chest, smaller than the last time Eddie saw them like this. **”Still trying to get it right.”** They butt up against Eddie's head, gently, and Eddie can't resist the urge to wrap a hand around the back of their head and draw them in for a soft kiss, lips on closed sharp teeth. 

**”Love?”** Venom asks, and Eddie flushes. He's fallen into this without giving himself time to catch up, this easy affection. Venom grabs him a snack out of the fridge when he's writing and he thinks, _thanks, dear_. Makes a bad joke and he says, “darling, that's awful.” He hasn't said _love_ , not yet, but.

 **You love me?** Venom is still manifested, but the nerves that aren't his own are back and this, this isn't out loud, and Eddie can't speak past the rush of emotion that surges through him. 

“Yeah,” he says, reaching out to cradle Venom's head in his hands. “You know that.” 

**You have been trying not to think it,** Venom says. **It scares you?**

“Hell yeah it scares me. You're in my head. You know what a mess I've made with—things like this.” 

**There is _nothing_ like us.**

They're not wrong, is the hell of it. Eddie has never had a relationship like this. He gets the sense that Venom hasn't either. And more to the point—they are the only being like this in the world. In the solar system. There are no rules for them, because there is no one who can understand the existence they have. They will never be lonely again, but in this, in this they are completely and fully alone. 

_We can do whatever we want,_ Eddie thinks, and Venom hums in pleased approval. 

*

There's a little bit of a learning curve in this, too.

They go on dates now. Maybe not conventional ones—they go out to a bar, and Venom lets alcohol seep into Eddie's system enough to get him chatty and buzzed enough to look like an easy target, and then they eat the person looking for a mark. They sit by the bay at night, watching the stars, and then dive in, Venom taking over so Eddie doesn't need to breathe, and soar through the water until they find the biggest, juiciest fish that wriggles their way. Sometimes they dive off the bridge, because they can, and Venom purrs in happiness at how delicious Eddie's adrenaline tastes as they hit the water. 

**There's mine,** Venom says, moving Eddie's arm to point to a star. They're on top of the Salesforce Tower; these days, Eddie isn't afraid of heights. He knows Venom will get them back down in one piece.

“It's dim,” Eddie says. “How old is it?” 

**Maybe another million years left,** Venom says. **Too far to reach, now.**

Eddie is quiet for a moment. “Do you ever miss it?” he asks, finally. 

**”No.”** Venom envelops him, and the star is brighter, clearer. He can see constellations that he dimly remembers from his childhood, standing in a field at his grandparents' house in Nebraska, everything suddenly so sharp and clear. The city lights barely dim the sky anymore. The mixed smells of humanity from below, sweat and smoke and food trucks and the sharp scent of gasoline, drift up, and they close their eyes, taking it all in. They can see for miles, like this, but sometimes it's easier not to. To lose themselves in other senses. 

**”We were not welcome there. Not wanted. What we wanted was--”**

“A we?” 

**”Yes. And here we are.”**

Eddie barely has to think it, and he and Venom are separating, a little, enough that he can lay gentle kisses on Venom's face. 

**”We should go home,”** Venom says. **”Go home together.”**

Venom is an asexually reproducing species. The other day, they stuck a tendril up Eddie's nose--”ow! Not _there!_ ”--because they found an ancient memory of teenage Eddie watching hentai, where the character asked to be filled everywhere and they didn't understand that “everywhere” didn't mean _everywhere_. Eddie has since had to explain that ears are fine on the outside, but not the inside, too. They—haven't. But they've been testing the waters. 

Eddie's heart kicks up a notch because it sounds like, in this, Venom has learned enough to understand. 

*

They barely make it inside the door of his apartment. 

**We have wanted this for a long time** , Venom murmurs. **Your dreams--**

Eddie flushes. He's never been good at remembering dreams, but lately, he's been waking up hard and sweating, dim flashes of Venom enveloping him in his mind, tentacles snaking into him and filling him up, being pinned up against walls, against his bed. He knows Venom has seen them. If they can see his dreams beyond that, they might have seen more. 

“Just--” he closes his eyes. “Just take me.” 

**_Eddie._ **

“ _Bed,_ ” Eddie manages, and Venom drags them both there so quickly he barely has time to blink. He strips out of his shirt and his hand, suddenly black, yanks at his pants so hard he hears the fabric tear a little, and he shudders and helps them along. There are a thousand things he wants to try. He doesn't even know where to start. 

**So many thoughts,** Venom purrs, and Eddie is pinned to the bed, tendrils coming out from every side, greedily feeling his skin. **But in all of them you are _mine_**. 

“Yours,” Eddie gasps out, and Venom wraps a tentacle around his cock, tight and slick and so good he could cry from it. Venom likes that idea. They are a head, and then half of a body, coming out from Eddie's chest, forming familiar shapes and then--

“Oh, my god.” 

**”Anything you like,”** Venom says, a pleased, wide grin and a terrifyingly large cock and two pairs of breasts. 

“Someone pinch me,” Eddie says, faint, and Venom does, and yes, this is still happening, like something out of the strangest, best wet dream he has ever had. They bend down to wrap that tongue around his cock, and he cries out, so loud it makes him wince, unable to hold it back. “Do you--”

 **”Beg,”** Venom says, around their mouthful, eyes closing to savor it. 

“Fucking—oh my god,” Eddie gasps. “Oh my god.” 

**We said beg, Eddie** Venom says, low and slow. Their tongue twists tighter, tip flicking over his cockhead, and he throws his head back. 

“Please, oh my god, please fuck me, holy shit I can't--” 

A tendril snakes out from his back and teases at his hole, back and forth, and he grits his teeth against the noise he wants to make before it presses in, slick and smooth. He reaches out. He has to. The breasts are smooth and soft, and he can't stop running his hands over them, squeezing them, as another tendril joins the first, opening him up further. 

Their cock, when Eddie is able to gather his thoughts enough to process _anything_ , looks—different. Almost...

 **You like a little pain**. 

“Yes,” Eddie pants out, too far gone for anything but honesty, and then he realizes. Spines. It has _spines_ , and some distant part of him is terrified, while the rest of him is just repeating out _yes yes yes_ , all systems overloaded, and then the tendrils withdraw and Venom pulls Eddie down onto it. 

He loses his breath completely as Venom breaches him, too big to process anything. Every little movement is a distant hurt but it's so good it makes his teeth ache, taking this, and he can't help but look down, seeing this slick, barbed thing work its way into him, so deep he could choke on it. 

**Maybe later,** Venom says, amused, and Eddie shudders. There's no reason they _couldn't_ just work themselves all the way through him until he's choking on them, every part of his insides invaded. They just want to give him this, right now, instead. 

Venom fucks him hard and fast, lighting him up from the inside and making him cry out with every thrust, and he can feel the echo of his pleasure in Venom, too, reflected back. 

“Is it good?” he manages, after a moment. He's drooling. He's not in any place to be self-conscious about it, right now. 

**So good** Venom confirms. **We feel everything. We love this, Eddie. Like you do. Take what we give you.**

Eddie throws his head back and just lets himself feel. Every scrape, every bit of blinding pleasure, and Venom takes over his mouth just enough to stop him from gritting his teeth against the sounds he's trying to hold back. He howls with it, head thrown back, eyes beading with tears, and then the cock Venom has formed starts to swell inside him. Oh, fuck. 

**You read this, once** Venom says, voice unsteady. **You thought it was strange but you liked it so much you couldn't stop thinking about it for days.**

“Mhmm,” Eddie manages, tears leaking down his cheeks as the pressure settles into a knot, and then there is a hot rush inside him, and he squeezes his eyes shut and comes so hard he loses time, just an endless white of pleasure. Venom is—filling him up. With what, he doesn't know, and doesn't care. Venom could be breeding him, and he would let them. Would open himself to it. 

**Eddie,** Venom murmurs, as he comes back to reality. **So good for us, Eddie.**

“Did you--” 

**We didn't spawn,** Venom says, amused. **But we could do it that way, next time, since you like the thought so much.**

“What did you. What was that I felt, then?” Eddie asks, and then he looks down, and, oh.

His cock and his stomach are both perfectly clean. Like he never came at all. Like all that come was, oh, shit. 

**We redirected a little,** Venom says, very pleased with themself. **It was easier than we thought it might be.**

Eddie reaches back and, yes, Venom has left him dripping—with his own come, slowly leaking out of him, and he shudders. That has no right to be as hot as it is. 

**Just let us be happy,** Venom says, pulling Eddie into a cuddle. **Don't think so much.**

“Trying,” Eddie says. “Love you.” Their bond dances with elation at that, and he smiles, stroking over every part of Venom he can reach. 

 

*

“So,” Eddie asks, finally. “The spawning thing. Riot was your child?”

Venom takes control of them long enough to make him shrug. **We are like—you read about this once. Rabbits. We spawn and feed the young for a short time, and then they go out on their own to find a host. We have done so six times.**

Venom has weirdly fond memories of rabbits, Eddie has found. Their first host on Earth was one. 

**But,** Venom continues, **we know humans are more complicated. And we don't want another Riot. When we spawn again--**

“When will that be?”

 **We have been holding it back,** Venom admits. **Whenever we are safe and well-fed, it happens. We could have spawned a dozen times since we became We.**

“Oh. Uh—we. Uh.” 

Eddie wasn't raised with a mother, and his father is a memory best forgotten. The idea of them having a child is... complicated. Honestly, he's always kind of assumed he'd fuck it up, and Anne not wanting any children was a relief. 

**You would be a good father,** Venom reassures him, and of course, Venom knows the anxiety in his chest about this. They're in his head. **”You want to be the kind of father you didn't have.**

“And you?”

 **We don't want another Riot,** Venom repeats. **We don't have to follow the rules of our species anymore. We could do it right. Both of us. Can we?**

“Would it need a host?”

**If we—we have been thinking about trying to combine our DNA. We could create something that had its own host. But even if it didn't—we could--**

“We could?”

The fondness that washes through Eddie's system is all Venom. **We could get a rabbit.**

“I'd want a yard for that,” Eddie says, smiling at the thought. “We should have the money for that soon.” 

**Soon,** Venom repeats.

Eddie closes his eyes and thinks of it, their tendrils entwining with a tiny black mass, reaching out for them, full of wonder and promise, a chance to create the kind of world Venom wished for, quietly, knowing that they would be ostracized for ever speaking it allowed. _Our darling,_ he thinks, and Venom hums in answer.


End file.
